Re: Troubleshooting 802.11b wireless

["Jeffrey L. Taylor" <jeff@austinblues.dyndns.org>]

Quoting Jonathan Brandmeyer <jbrandmeyer@earthlink.net>:
[snip]
> ifup wlan0 reports this:
> Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
>     SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.
> Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
>     SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.
> Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
>     SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.

It sounds like you have a driver that does not support the wireless
tools extensions.  Sigh.  Unfortunately, the Debian way requires them.

You should be able to pass the parameters thru the module interface,
e.g.,

modprobe prism2 essid=ESSID mode=Managed

Note, I said SHOULD.  I have not actually made this work.  I had a
laptop that ran Slackware and it took downloading and building the
drivers, but I did get it working.  When I switched to Debian, I ran
into the problem you are seeing.  I decided it was easier to but a
PCMCIA Ethernet NIC.  (This was plain 802.11, not 802.11a/b/g and was
only useful with the same brand on all computers.  It saved pulling
Cat5 cable, but eventually was too slow, ~1Mbps real thruput.)

I suspect that you can find another driver that does support the
wireless extensions.

Jeffrey